Flying with an Infant

I was born and lived most of my formative years in Quebec, about an hour north of Montreal. I come from a large family (I have over 60 first cousins on my Mom's side alone) and most of them live in a 30 km radius. Consequently, now that I have a baby, I am especially keen to go back for a visit.

I was innocently perusing the Internet looking for travel tips as I have never travelled with small children and I cam across all of this very foreboding information about how dangerous it is to travel with a child on your lap.

I am not going to pretend that some of the urgency I feel about going back to Montreal is that the baby will get to fly for free and as a Mom at home, there isn't a lot of money to throw around. There are no discounts for a child flying so going back after she turn 2 means paying for another ticket.

But all of the information out there scared the poop out of me. Stories about Mom's losing their grip on their babies mid-flight during turbulence and the baby coming to serious harm. Or about how a lap child must be placed on the floor during a crash and how these baby's are often lost in the landing.

Okay - so I know that the chances of there being a crash on a plane is much smaller than in a car but turbulence is pretty common. And I can't help but feel like that fact that i have read about the dangers of a lap child, if anything happened (even something minor) I would be guilty of negligence.

Now I know the ultimate answer is to purchase a seat for the baby and strap her into her aviation approved Britax Marathon and call it a day. Unfortunately there is the problem of actually paying for the ticket. I am off on maternity and while I am still receiving some pay, it is just slightly more than half of my salary. There isn't a lot of extra money to through around and to complicate matters, the Hunky Hubby should actually be coming back with us. His father and paternal family all live in Montreal as well and he hasn't seen them for 5 years. We planned to slowly save for the trip and go in November when I had returned to work. But my Mom has decided that she wants to return this May or June and we both feel like having my granny, my mom, me and the baby all there at the same time would be a wonderful memory. My mom has offered to pay for my ticket (which I have not yet decided if I can accept) but that still leaves me to decide what to do about the baby.

Here is a link to the website recommended by Transport Canada for infant air safety. Take a minute to check it out and then weigh in - what would you do?

Tuesday's Recipes

Tuesday's Recipes

Breakfast

Kashi

Kashi Go Lean Crunch

1 banana

1 cup milk

Pour a bowl of Kashi, add sliced banana and milk and enjoy.

Lunch

Leftover Shepherds Pie

have with fruit juice and a cookie

Dinner

Pirogi

6 pirogi

4 oz smoked turkey sausage

1 tbsp sour cream

1 onion, sliced

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1. Melt butter in small pot, add sliced onion and cook on lowest heat for 30 minutes

2. Prepare pirogi as per preference - I toss mine in olive oil and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until crisp.

3. Slice the sausage and quickly brown.

4. Place pirogi on a plate, add sour cream, caramelized onion and turkey sausage.

Serve with carrot sticks and have a piece of fruit.

Don't forget your snacks!

Recipes for Monday

Applesauce Saskatoonberry Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups unsweeted applesause
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (I used Saskatoonberries yum)

Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly coat 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

Mix together the 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowel. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

Whisk together the buttermilk, applesauce, egg, oil, and vanilla extract in a small bowl.

Toss the blueberries in 1/4 c all-purpose flour to lightly coat the berries.

Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the batter is just moistened. Fold in the blueberries.

Divide the mixture evenly amoung the muffin cups. Bake for 20 mins. Cool muffins in pan on a rach for 5 minutes. Remove muffins and serve warm or at room temperature.

Store in the freezer to have throughout the month (if you can wait that long)

Have one for breakfast with hemp protein in apple juice and a glass of milk.

Grilled Veggie Sandwich

1/2 Baguette

1 oz mozzarella

4 slices of tomato

4 olives, torn to pieces

1 tsp olive oil

1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan on a med heat.

2. Layer olive pieces, mozza and tomato on bottom half of baguette and top with top of baguette.

3. Put the sandwich in the frying pan and scan kitchen frantically for something heavy to put on top.

4. Settle on stacking three large cans of diced tomatoes precariously on a saucepan.

5. Hover to ensure cans do not slide off.

6. Flip sandwich after 3 minutes and repeat steps 3-5.

7. After the second 3 minutes have elapsed, grab sandwich (careful its hot) and as soon as you are brave enough, bite into its hot, gooey, sweet, salty goodness.

Have with some water and an apple.

Turkey Shepherds Pie

• 1 lbs ground turkey
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 can of corn
• 2 large yams (not the supersized ones - like a large potato)
• 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

1 Peel and quarter yams, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the yams are cooking, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in large frying pan.

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins).

4 Add groundvturkey and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add corn after the meat has initially cooked.

5 Mash yams in bowl with 2 tablespoons of butter, season to taste.

6 Place turkey, corn and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed yams on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well. Daub with 1 tablespoon of butter.

7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 20 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Serves two.

Have with fruit juice mixed with soda water and a cookie for dessert.

Last Minute Change - if you like

I came across a recipe for Whole Wheat Orange Spice Muffins and I thought that they sounded too good to miss. So here is the adjusted shopping lists to get rid of the Maple Bran Muffins and replace them with the new Orange Spice Muffins. I will keep the old shopping lists up as well so that you can choose to include either muffin. I'll post the recipe for both.

New Monthly Shopping List

New Week One Perishables

Weekly perishables

The weekly perishables list can be viewed and printed here. Again, I have left space to record cost. I'll post my filled in list after I shop. Happy Shopping!

March Monthly Shopping List

The list can be viewed in detail and printed here. As you can see I've left space to record cost. I'll post my list with cost filled in after I shop tomorrow.

Food Serving Sizes and Suggestions

You can view and print this document here.